Talc products for paints are manufactured by milling specific talc ores in dry milling processes to the talc powders with desired particle size distribution. Typical median particle size for paint talc product is 1 to 25 μm and upper top cut is from 10 μm to 200 μm. Median particle size for talc powder used in paints cause different decorative properties to paints, e.g. high median particle size decreases gloss and low median size increases covering power. Median particle size also has influence on mechanical properties, e.g. on wet scrub resistance, of paints.
Dry powders are then dispersed in water during the production of water based paints. This causes problems because it is difficult to get homogenous dispersion of solid particles. Talc powders also cause dusting problems during storing and handling stages.